If you don't know already, Meta tags are special HTML that
sits up between the head flags and allows you to embed words
into your page that a search engine would use to index and,
hopefully, return your page as part of a search. Yes, Meta
flags do more than this, but it is for the search engine
function that most people use them.

Meta tags have been around right from the beginning, and
right from the beginning people have sought to misuse them.
The misuse is most often in order to "trick" a search engine
into listing their page before listing another.

When used correctly, Meta tags offer a series of keywords
and a description of your site (yes, there are other Meta
tags, but this is where the majority of the messing around
occurs). A search engine, when it accepts and lists a site,
uses those keywords to search rather than searching the
entire text of the page. The idea is sound, but easily
manipulated.

In the past, search engines listed search results in order
of "best match" first. Let's say I searched for the word
"dog." One page had the word two times, the next had it ten
times. The page that had "dog" ten times would be listed
first. It was a good way of doing it, in that the second
page might have had more information about a dog than the
first.

Well, as soon as this little chunk of information got out,
people started going goofy in their Meta tags. If a page
dealt with the Cleveland Browns football team, then the
authors would set up a keyword Meta tag with the word
"Browns" listed 1000 times. Really. Then "Cleveland" a
thousand more, then "Cleveland Browns" yet another
thousand times. The keyword Meta tag would be 2000 lines
and easily longer than the page itself.

This actually worked for a short while until the search
engines caught on that they were cataloguing 50K byte pages
that barely read "Hello." If you pulled that trick today,
you'd be denied listing in a search engine. They now look
down on multiple keywording as spamming.

But that doesn't mean you can't use an absolute ton of
different words... or words that don't pertain to you.
Another pseudo-famous Meta tag trick is to put in keywords
that are sure to be searched, but have nothing to do with
your page. For example, pretend I have a page that lists my
favorite band's members' photos. I submit that page to a
search engine with the keywords CBS, Ford, HTML, Goodies,
JavaScript, Yahoo, Pamela, Anderson.

I know the words have nothing to do with the page, but what
I do know is that "Pamela Anderson" was one of the most
searched strings of text last year. Now I have a little more
luck in getting picked if someone searches for her name. And
if I make my description a little vague, then the person who
searched might be compelled to stop by my page, thinking it
was devoted to Pam. See the logic?

The use of Meta tag keywords is now being tested in court.
Yes, people are actually being sued over this. Since I've
brought up Pam Anderson, let me now bring up Terri Welles.
Welles is a former Playboy playmate who's being sued by
Hef's gang of lawyers for using of the words "Playboy" and
"Playmate" in her site's Meta tags. Playboy Magazine said
the terms were registered trademarks and could not be used.
Sound silly? It did to the court, too.

Hef lost.

The court ruled that Welles was using the terms as
descriptive rather than as a blatant misuse in order to
attract visitors. But it ain't over till it's over. Playboy's
lawyers intend to keep fighting through the highest court in
the land. They have the funds, I guess.

In another case, West Coast Video was sued because they used
the term "MovieBuff" in their Meta tags. (They also created
a site with that name.) "MovieBuff" is a registered trademark
of Brookfield Communications, Inc., a California-based
provider of entertainment news.

Initially, West Coast Video lost the right to use the term,
but on appeal the United States Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit in San Francisco overturned the ruling, noting
that the use of "MovieBuff" did not create "initial interest
confusion." That's a special section of trademark law that
states using another's trademark to confuse the consumer and
bring them to you is bad.

In the case of West Coast Video, the user would not be
confused because when the page loaded they obviously would be
in the West Coast Video, rather than the MovieBuff site.

Although this may look like a winner for Meta tag culprits,
it's not. The wording of the ruling reads very loosely. I
don't think you're going to be able to use trademarks in your
Meta tags at will because the user won't be confused when
they arrive at your page. A court is also going to take into
consideration your intent. If you have a series of trademarks
in your Meta tags, but no content relating to those keywords,
then you might be in a bit of trouble.

So, does that mean that all you have to do is create a page
of links to all of these trademark's home pages, then use the
keyword? I doubt it. Again, that would smell fishy and would
probably throw red flags.

West Coast Video solved the problem by taking the word
"MovieBuff" out of their Meta tags.

But you know what? A space could have fixed all of this. A
space.

The court also ruled that spelling is everything. "MovieBuff"
is bad. "Movie Buff" is not. The space makes the words
separate and thus not the same as the registered trademark.

I have no doubt that Internet Law will be fun to watch in the
years to come.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And that's that. Thanks for reading.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.

And Remember: Have you ever heard the phrase, "His name is
Mud." The insult was derived from the doctor who set John
Wilkes Booth's broken leg, which he broke jumping from
Lincoln's box to the stage of Ford's Theater. Samuel Mudd
set Booth's leg and didn't realize until later who's leg it
actually was. Mudd was taken away as a conspirator, a charge
which was later overturned, but the poor moniker stuck.